1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of distributed authoring systems, and more particularly pertains to the implementing of authoring controls within the authoring system. Moreover, the invention is specifically directed to providing a selection mechanism which employs control structures for dynamically selecting content and display components of an authoring system.
In essence, authoring systems, which may also be known as authoring tools or authorware in technological and commercial applications, may be programs existing in hypertext and multimedia applications. Pursuant to more sophisticated applications,-in internet, on-line or CD-ROM programs, the authoring systems may be scripting language or graphics elements, or may even represent a mixture of textual (teaching tools, printed works and the like) material, graphical representations, audio data and numerous, practically unlimited types of objects or programs. These authorizing systems are ordinarily developed and designed by authors who define the relationships of the foregoing aspects with each other, and sequencing the programs in an appropriate order for data storage.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the present state of the technology and industry, authoring systems are adapted to control authoring access, generally to an authoring system utilizing various control parameters such as check-in/check-out, access control lists, profiles and predefined roles which are assigned to various authors of the system.
In various of the presently developed and known authoring systems, the access control mechanisms which facilitate access to the authoring system are specified or predefined by the system itself; whereas, other authoring systems do not provide access control systems or similar arrangements.
In order to obviate and overcome the limitations encountered in present authoring systems a primary aspect of the present invention resides in the provision of an improved selection mechanism employed in authoring systems, which utilizes control structures for dynamically selecting content and display components present in the authoring systems. The authoring system incorporates an access control engine having the selection mechanism operatively connected therewith. An authoring control mechanism enables one or more users such as readers or authors to gain access to the authoring system, whereby multiple users may be afforded serial access the authoring system; or users may access the authoring system simultaneously or in an overlapping order in accordance with predetermined criteria or conditions established by the access control engine and enforced by the control mechanism for the authoring systems.
In essence, the authoring system utilizes different parameters or criteria in order to provide reader or author (user) access thereto through the improved access control engine pursuant to the invention. Basically, these parameters or criteria include:
a) Userid (User identification)xe2x80x94which is designed to uniquely identify a user or numbers of users intending to gain permission for access to the authoring system;
b) Active flagxe2x80x94providing for indication that a particular user is logged into the authoring system;
c) Rolexe2x80x94is utilized to group users by related functionality, which is implemented by attributes, logic and values, as defined hereinbelow;
d) Attributexe2x80x94is a named field which is associated with content, display components, and/other system elements; and is utilized to tag or impart a set of values with a specific meaning or meanings;
e) Logicxe2x80x94utilizes boolean logic in order to test a given value against the value of a corresponding in content, display component and/or other system element;
f) Valuexe2x80x94defines a constant which is utilized in tabled logic, which is compared with corresponding constants which are assigned to content, display component or system element attributes;
g) Choice componentsxe2x80x94defines a list of that display component or those display components available to a role for both selection and display mechanisms, and which ties specific display logic to content attributes;
h) Which display componentxe2x80x94list of which particular set of logic is to be used against the attribute in the display mechanism;
i) Permissionsxe2x80x94to implement the xe2x80x9caccess authority of the systemxe2x80x9d for a specific role as set forth in c) hereinabove.
The foregoing parameters or criteria are employed in that the access control engine pursuant to the invention resolves access control or privileges in the authoring system, utilizing information from both an active user table and an access control structure table. In that instance, the roles are a membership structure utilized to group common functionality and to tie logic to attributes and values. Thus, the roles set forth in an access control table eliminate the need for author profiles in the authoring system, and by introducing logic and display components in the access control engine it is possible to obviate the need for having to execute logic subsequently, as do databases with their views. In the present authoring system, there is no distinction between authors and readers, and a person designed to multiple roles is imparted the combined functionality of all of the roles. Hereby, functionality is defined by the attributes, logic and values, and wherein every access is conveyed to the inventive access control engine, imparting the authoring system with the ability to dynamically reflect changes in the system.
Inventively, the selection mechanism is used to select both content and display components based on resolved control structures sent by the access control engine. The initiating service request to the access control engine is associated with a userid. Once the userid is associated with a role or roles, the userid is no longer needed for processing. Each role is associated with attributes, values and logic used to control content selection and how the selected content is displayed. The access control engine resolves overlapping and conflicting role logic and returns a single consistent set of logic to the selection mechanism. The selection mechanism uses this logic to select the content and display components. By introducing logic and display components in the access control engine, we do not need to have to execute logic later as databases do with their views.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved and novel selection mechanism which employs control structures to dynamically select content and display components in an authoring system.
A further object of the present invention resides in the provision of an authoring system which includes an access control engine incorporating a novel selecting mechanism for dynamically selecting content and display components of the authoring system through the use of control structures.